


Lash Back

by flibbertygigget



Series: Lash Back/Cold War [1]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Season 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 10:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: Beth invites one more person to the confrontation with Joe.





	Lash Back

**Author's Note:**

> I use quite a bit of the dialogue from the episode. Sorry about that. This was just a little idea I couldn't get out of my head.

"I just keep thinking of all the damage done," Hardy says, squinting into the disjointedly cheerful marina. The sun glares off the water, and he wonders if he could pass off the wetness in his eyes as the result of the light. He doesn't want to cry in front of Miller, not now. "All those lives." Miller looks like she wants to say something comforting, something ridiculous, but then her phone rings.  
  
"Yeah?" she says. She glances over at him, something confused and fearful in her eyes. "Yeah, he's here." She hands the phone over to him reluctantly, mouthing "Beth."  
  
"What?" he says.  
  
"You know the house?" Beth says. "The, uh, the overlook house, where he killed Danny?"  
  
"Yeah," Hardy says.  
  
"I need you to bring Ellie there."  
  
"I can't drive," Hardy says. "They haven't given me my license back."  
  
"Why do you not - Never mind. Just be there." She hangs up, and he's left staring at the phone.  
  
"What was that all about?" Miller says.  
  
"Dunno." Though he has a few suspicions. "Come on, Miller. We're needed at the overlook."

* * *

"Paul called us," Beth says when they reach the house. There's still police tape on the doorway from when SOCO had processed the scene. Miller's looking around as though there's some piece of evidence they'd somehow missed, flashing a bloody neon sign at them. "Joe's holed up at the church."  
  
"So why're we here?" Hardy says when it's obvious Miller's not going to say anything.  
  
"Ellie deserves to confront him just as much as I do," Beth says. Miller's head jerks in her direction.  
  
"Confront him?" she says. "In what way?" Beth shrugs. Hardy doubts that she knows the answer.  
  
"And why'm I here?" he says.  
  
"You did everything you could to get justice for my boy," Beth says. Bile burns at the back of Hardy's throat. "You ought to be there at the end of it."  
  
"The end of it?" Miller says. Beth nods, lips pressed together. Hardy can only shrug.  
  
"Right," he says. "Any place in particular you were planning on hiding the body?"

* * *

Beth sits across the table from Joe, Mark and Miller at her sides like sentries. Hardy's taken position near the door, partly to make sure Joe can't make a break for it and partly to revel in the way the bastard glances back at him with a look of sheer terror on his face.  
  
"Do you know how many knives there are in here?" Beth says. Joe is trembling. "Fourteen. I counted them while I was waiting. Thought about which'd be best to use on you."  
  
"I'm sorry-"  
  
"No!" That's the moment Hardy realizes that Beth won't do it. Jury's still out on Miller or Mark, but Beth won't be able to kill him. "Don't open your mouth. You don't get to speak." Hardy's mind wanders as Beth continues the little speech she's obviously prepared. It's no good trying to shame the bastard; he already feels shame. He's just too much of a coward to do anything real with it.  
  
"I was found innocent-"  
  
"Shut up! Just shut up, you piece of shit!" Miller snaps.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ell." Hardy shifts forward, growl rising in his throat, but Miller beats him to the punch.  
  
"You're not sorry. If you were sorry, you'd have pleaded guilty." Miller takes in a deep, shuddering breath, and Hardy settles back against the wall. He's seen her in every kind of distress - anger, sorrow, guilt - but this isn't that. This isn't the interrogation room, even though he half wishes it was.  
  
"You heard what she said," Miller says, fully in control of herself now. "You are leaving and you are never coming back. And you will never see either of your children again."  
  
"You can't do that."  
  
"Oh, I can do that." It's not enough. It's not nearly enough, not half of what the bastard deserves. "If you try and see them, if you follow them, if you go to their schools, if you contact them in any way, I will kill you. And, unlike you, I will face the consequences."  
  
"Ell-" He isn't nearly as scared as he should be.  
  
"Shut up." Joe swings around to face him, fear flooding into his eyes. Hardy pushes himself up from his slouched position, feeling the way that Miller and Mark and even Beth's attentions have shifted. "Now listen to me, you little cockroach. This lot might be content with sending you packing, but I am not."  
  
"Hardy-" Miller says, but he gives her a look and she falls silent.  
  
"I will not stop," he says. "You are going to spend the rest of your days of freedom, however long that may be, looking over your shoulder in fear of me because I will not stop. I will find the evidence we need, I will reopen this case, and I will be sending you to jail where you belong."  
  
"You can't do that," Joe says.  
  
"Oh, I can," Hardy says. "You think that just because a couple of easily-swayed wankers let you off you can sleep easy? You won't. You'd better eat something indigestible, Joe, and listen to your nightmares. I hope to feature prominently. I nearly killed myself closing Sandbrook, making sure those girls got justice, and I'll do it again for Danny. And when I have the evidence, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if it means getting him justice."  
  
"You - You-" Joe looks like he's about to piss himself.  
  
"He'll do it, too," Miller says. Joe's eyes dart over to her, pleading. Hardy settles back against the wall, satisfied that his point has been made.  
  
"Get him out of my sight," Beth says softly, "and pray to God that I never see him again." Mark hoists Joe up by his shirt collar, dragging him across the room and out of the house. The front door slams behind him.  
  
It doesn't sound anything like closure.

* * *

"So you're staying, then?" Miller asks him later, staring at the half-packed duffel bags in his rented living room. "In Broadchurch?"  
  
"Can't very well look for more evidence elsewhere, can I?" Hardy says. He looks over at her, trying to gauge her mood, her potential responses. "Don't fancy doing it alone, either." She snorts.  
  
"I don't think anyone here would trust me with so much as a toll bridge, never mind proper investigation."  
  
"I trust you." For a moment shock and painful gratitude flood her face. Hardy turns his eyes to the ground awkwardly. He knows that she doesn't want him to see her vulnerability.  
  
"Still," she says, clearing her throat, "it would be a bit awkward, wouldn't it? Me being back here, after all's happened."  
  
"Broadchurch is your home," Hardy says. "Besides, I heard that they're looking for a DI, now that their old one got himself so rudely medicalled out."  
  
"You really think I could do it?"  
  
"You're a damn good detective, Miller," he says. "Or - Or is it not Miller now, what with..."  
  
"Yeah, no," she says. "I've been thinking of going back to Barrett. I'll have to ask Tom first, of course, but. Yeah."  
  
"Barrett," Hardy says, rolling the name around his mouth. "_Barrett_."  
  
"You don't like it."  
  
"It'll take some getting used to is all."  
  
"Well, you could always just call me Ellie." His entire face scrunches up in disgust.  
  
"_No_." 


End file.
